Yes, I am behind and now totally entrenched into the daily routines of our platoon of boys.
I am most impressed now at what and who the boys are becoming. I am satisfied that we are on target of achieving what I envisioned two years ago. I am pleased overall. I love these boys. I am seeing the boys become less selfish and more selfless.
We encourage service. Boys becoming more and more thinking of others more than themselves. Slow but sure process that I see taking place.
We definitely consider our freedoms and American liberties a lot different. The schedule of progression from New York---Philadelphia---Gettysburg----Washington DC is definitely inspired. This has been a very logical progression of US history. I cant think of any better possible history lesson than what we have done. I am 100% confident that these boys will remember this experience. No question we will never look upon the American flag the same.
I have also seen a progression in testimony. We pray together. We have Preach My Gospel discussions that are BETTER than some high priest and Elders Quorum discussions that I have participated in (I am NOT joking). I am impressed with their leadership. I look forward to our nightly devotionals every night. It is definitely becoming a highlight to me on a daily basis. They boys are really opening up and on board with it. Yesterday Tucker Pike observed that its amazing that the spirit is so strong at these meetings . Cant help to think that the Lord has vested interest in these meetings and other activities of this trip as these are HIS up and coming battalion leaders. At times I really feel that we are training an army. I have seen multiple times the hand of Providence involved in the details of our activity.
I love the respect that the boys are giving to our leaders. Overall they are very respectful to us. In general they are doing what we tell them to do. There are many things disagreeable to a modern day teenager that we are asking them to do (Wear your uniform, get up at 5:00, dress appropriately, keep your shirt tucked in, curfew, meetings, time schedules, etc.). There are small glitches here and there but the positive far outweighs the negative.
Wednesday night we have Patrol leaders meeting and empower the patrol leaders. Hoping that the boys continue to take over in leadership of the troop. Im very happy with our leaders.
Swim pool is PACKED wall to wall with literally hundreds of boys. Quite a sight to behold.
Incredible spirit at Gettysburg.
Day 5, Thursday
Breakfast at hotel Country Inn of Lancaster.
Morning spent visiting the Museum of the American Civil War. And then saw the film “A New Birth of Freedom” then visit the massive 360 degree Cyclorama, Battle of Gettysburg.
Box lunches at the Museum area—turkey sandwiches.
Met our amazing and wonderful step on guide to tour the Gettysburg Battlefield.
Amazing that until the battle of Gettysburg was up in the air even into the final third day of battle. I think we all got a sense of “seeing” the militias charging, retreating.
Closely inspected the fields, the high ground, the strategies, the fallacies, the courage, the valor, the bravery of Gettysburg. We had a discussion regarding bravery and valor. Boys understood.
Key elements that have made the learning experience more effective have been individual presentations by the boys. Many of them have obviously put in incredible time and effort. I love seeing and hearing the boys make their presentations in the bus. Each presentation is followed by a question period. Boys are engaged and participating in this amazingly. I always find it curious and interesting o see boys giving attention to their peers when they get up to speak.
Pizza and buffet on the way home. The phrase, “All you can eat” fits well into a boys vocabulary.
Day 6, Friday—Washington DC.
Box breakfast in the bus.
Step on Guide at the Old Post Office Pavilion.
Eric our step on guide had the appearance of Elder Bednar but in no way had the personality of him. Eric would ask, “tell me 5 things about FDR…..ok go!” boys would then raise their hands and answer questions and in essence became the tour guides for the morning. I am actually quite impressed how much these boys know about our nations capitol and history. They did a great job at the strict, bold, forceful approach of our guide.
Went to Union Station and had lunch. Boys are given food vouchers and are given freedom to go to whichever fast food place they want. Union Station is THE most visited spot in Washington DC
Im not sure the boys realize what an incredible experience this is for the price they paid. There is no possible way that I could do this well if I booked all the tours, experiences etc privately. No way I could do HOW we are doing it with a family. We are literally dropped off at the doorstep of each site. We don’t have to worry about parking. We have our own bus driver who is now part of our troop family who we like a lot and he likes us too. We change our plans now almost on a daily basis and he is more than willing to drive us anywhere. The hotels are top notch, especially the Hilton in Washington D.C (four total nights). The Hilton is much nicer than the hotels we stay in on our vacations as a family. Someday the boys will realize just how amazing this is at such a relatively low cost. The food has been excellent and we have not had at all any complaints about the volume of food taken in by the boys. They are definitely not going hungry!
Really this is an amazing trip. The life lessons we are learning are priceless and this is definitely the most important aspect of this experience. This was the goal from the beginning. The tours, the activities are awesome and we are all gaining historical knowledge which is important but not the endpoint. They therefore become the vehicle or the stage that we have as leaders to assist in our efforts to build men!
Afternoon in Washington DC was spent at the Spy museum. Boys had an opportunity to become a spy with an assignment and spent an hour fulfilling their assignment. I think they had a really good experience. Amazing museum. I am glad we changed our plans to visit this instead of the Air and Space Museum (although a MUST see as well…..cant see everything in DC on one trip). It was good to see the boys take a break from the historical museums.
We walked down to China Town in DC and inundated a McDonalds for lunch. Cramped quarters and many ate their food standing up. Boys have become very adept to allowing other customers to cut in front of the overwhelming 40 person scout line. Yet again they make me a proud scoutmaster. Seeing the boys doing things like this make me want to be here even more.
Depart and arrive at the famous Marine Barracks Drill Parade and concert. This really was amazing. Had some skirmishes with boys being irreverent during the ceremony and took care of this after when we got back to the hotel. I am confident now that the boys completely understand our expectations when it comes to appropriate behavior especially when respect, reverence and attention is required. It takes maturity to recognize when its time to yell, scream etc and when complete silence and attention is appropriate. We are really trying to help the boys understand the difference.
Marine Barracks show was excellent. Precision marching and gun handling was quite a sight to behold.
Got back to the hotel quite late 11:30 pm and had the boys skip PMG discussions but to have patrol family prayers only.
Capitol tour….
Great movie presentation prior to the tour.
The last time we toured I remembered it was difficult to hear our tour guide. This time we all wore headphones listening to our guide. Fantastic tour. Boys tooks pics sitting next to Brigham Young. If only the walls and floors and ceiling could speak. An incredible story they could tell.
After the tour we distributed $10 to each boy to find their own fast food…on Pennsylvania Ave.
Depart for Fort Mchenry/Baltimore.
Had tears during the presentation of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. Commanding attention when we all started singing the Star Spangled Banner as each boy arose from sitting and saluting the 15 star flag that flies over Fort Mchenry. This was the same flag type that flew when Francis Scott Key saw the flag in the dawns early light after a night of a barrage of bombing by the Brits in the War of 1812.
Some toured the fort and some played football and Frisbee on the lawns of Fort McHenry.
On to Camden Yards in Baltimore to watch the Orioles play the Toronto Blue Jays. We gave the boys each $15 for dinner. Most got hotdogs, chicken nuggets, hamburgers etc. I had the famous Camden Yards soft shell crab sandwich. This was a full crab IN ITS SHELL, deep fried and eaten WHOLE between two pieces of bread. Interesting.
Preach my Gospel discussion in our patrol of 10 boys….simply stated, amazing. EVERY boy is engaged in these spiritual discussions. They will completely finish the entire PMG manual by the end of the trip.
Saturday is a special day it’s the day we get ready for Sunday.
We found the Metro Laundromat and stormed into Jimmy’s establishment at 8:30 pm, his closing time. He agreed to stay and allow our boys to do their laundry. This was quite a sight to behold boys working to sort, wash, dry their clothes. Some are experienced and others asked for some help. We decided to have the boys do their own laundry instead of us doing everyone’s laundry as we would have missed an important opportunity for mission preparation. The boys actually loved it. Some boys spontaneously picked up a broom and began sweeping up Jimmy’s floors.
We left Jimmy a BOM and an extra $20 for his willingness to stay late after closing time on a Saturday night.
We had a discussion about what was about to happen Sunday and encouraged the boys to spend the day thinking about the Savior and remembering what is most important to them. I challenged them to make the day different, get up earlier, read scriptures, pray and have a spiritual experience. Encouraged them to take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen their testimonies.
A few homesick boys but nothing too significant. We are taking care to attend to these boys and help them remember that they have family right here. We are a troop and we are a family. I really thought it would have been much worse than it really is as it comes to homesickness.
Felt good to have all the boys with clean clothes ready for Sunday!
PMG and family prayer.
Day 7 SABBATH DAY Washington DC
I was able to arrange for Stan Ellsworth to fly out Saturday, arriving at midnight, and speak to the boys as our featured speaker at a non denominational meeting at the amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery. The cemetery is considered by some to be the most sacred place in the US. There is a definite solemn, reverent feel to Arlington. The boys immediately felt this walking by the precisely placed headstones.
What an experience having the star of American Ride board our bus and tell stories. He has a personality that the boys enjoy. He has a unique way of commanding their attention.
We also heard from Boyd Matheson—Chief of Staff for Senator Mike Lee. Great talk. A venture crew sang "On m
My Honor" and "Rise up O Men of God".
Stan Ellsworth had a heart attack last week and when I was talking to him on the phone a couple of days before I told him that we were ok with him not coming and to recover from his health condition. He told me "Doctor, I gave you my word and I will honor my word!" I discussed this with the boys and asked them if they are like Stan Ellsworth or they like others who often dont do what they say they will do.
Stan gave an incredible talk and then departed back to the airport for his 5 hour flight back to Utah. Thats a lot of flying for anyone. Thats a lot of flying just to give a talk at Arlington. Thats a lot of flying for one who just had a heart attack last week. Thats a lot of flying for one who is true to his word.
Walked down to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and witnessed the changing of the guard that occurs every ½ hour. Solemn, honor, respect, silence, reverence, peaceful, sadness, pride, gratitude. A large mix of emotions at this sacred place.
Hot, heat, humid, somewhat horrible at times. Surprisingly the boys are NOT complaining of it too much.
Went to the Marine war Memorial—the statue of the second flag raising by the Marines in Iwo Jima. Asked the boys to see with “all eyes” and count the number of hands on the flagpole. They all said 8 and I told them that they failed to recognize the 9th…the hand of God. Iconic statue of an ACTUAL photograph. Most of the other hundreds of statues we have seen on our tours have been depictions of what was likely to have been. This is a statue of an actual photograph.
Traveled to the Old Post Pavilion for lunch. Boys given vouchers. Quite a sight to see 600 boys in one general area swarming for food.
Prior to lunch we had about an hour to kill and some boys visited the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Some went to the Smithsonial US history museum and Some joined Chris and me at the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
We were the only troop of the 600 to attend sacrament services. We had a good discussion regarding this and all decided that this was the right thing to do. We asked Gil to attend with us and that added to the excitement of attending church. Boys were overall reverent but VERY tired.
We witnessed Styles Weiler place a Book of Mormon at church. We have become quite fond of our bus driver, Gil and the boys just love him. Gil is Catholic and he really appreciates the simple invitiations from the boys. Gil had a spiritual experience because of the efforts of these boys. Gil recently had a grandmother die and this caused him to weep.
Today was Chris Wood’s birthday. If we were women, he would have had a birthday cake, banners, confetti, cards, presents etc and other creative gestures. We gave him a birthday song and high fives. I think that was perfect for him. I know him well enough that there could not be a better present than this. Boys love him and respect him, Dave and Aaron highly. I am grateful and eternally indebted to them.
Interesting paradox as we went to dinner…the GSL council scheduled us to go to the Medieval Times restarant and we packed the house with 600 boys witnessing jousting, and staged hand to hand combat by knights. Hundreds of boys with other families cheering on their assigned knight. It was quite fun and the boys really enjoyed it but would have strongly preferred this to be scheduled on a Saturday not a Sunday. I am planning a strong criticism to our council leaders on this one.
On our way back to the hotel we saw the awe inspiring Washington DC temple as we drove up towards it along the freeway. I have never seen a bus driver get so excited about a building…..He immediately pulled off to the side of the freeway, stopped and asked us for the address to plug in his GPS and said that he would take us there. I have never seen a driver pull his bus over the side of a busy highway for this type of a reason. Interesting. Chris Wood frantically found the address and Gil took us there!
Pulled up on the temple grounds and took troop pics.
The boys had been clamoring all day to get back to the hotel for personal free time. Boys got back into the bus and Gil started asking about the visitor center and I asked the boys if they were interested in taking Gil through the visitor center. About ¾ of the boys were giddy at this idea like children on Christmas morning. Boys asked the leaders if they could take him though WITHOUT adult leaders. We obliged and agreed 100%. Boys had a great experience with their new investigator….inspired that they would begin their discussion at a place in the visitor center where family is emphasized and that families can be together forever.
The appropriate spirit of Sunday prevailed as patrols gathered for PMG and family prayer.
Tucker (one patrol leader) had each boy in his Patrol state his highlight of the trip thus far……
Responses….
1. Baptisms in the NY temple
2. Gill accepting the missionary discussions
3. Arlington-reverence, strong spirit.
4. Being homesick but having it dissipate because of increased feel of family in troop.
5. “Had tears in my eyes at Arlington”
6. Speaker in Sacrament meeting
7. Temple in Wash DC—“strong spirit there “
8. “Hand of God” discussion at the Marines war Memorial
Day 8….ON TO WEST VIRGINIA!!! Its Jambo time! Cots, tents, cooking, camping, rain (forecast), hot, muggy etc. On to our new vehicle for the growth of boys.
Have had discussions that we constantly seek for opportunities to meet others from other parts of the country. Told the boys that each should meet AT LEAST 20 boys per day from different parts of the country!
Simply amazing. Inspiring. Overwhelmed just reading the post. Thank you Bryan for your strength, leadership, and love for the boys. Jake's mom
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